Diverging Paths

I have succumbed to Twitter. God help me...

http://twitter.com/ChubbypandaBlog

To all my Jewish buddies:

Here's to eight crazy nights! =)

One of the three transformer arrays in my building blew out this morning, plunging the office in to darkness. We have no lights, heating, or plumbing, since apparently the pumps that get the water up our floor are out as well. Somehow, they managed to jury-rig power and internet for us, but the entire internal network is down.

I'm getting a lot of time to catch up on my blogging.

Waiting around for the electrician today. Whee... At least I get to work from home. =)

Stupid stove. The ceramic connector between the heat coil and the power supply keeps cracking and burning out, which means every now and then, the damn thing decides to shoot fat blue sparks at us. When I finally buy a house, I'm getting a gas stove.

(Pictures taken with my Canon Rebel XTi in Anaheim, CA)


(Ganked from jpathomas' Youtube channel)

Earlier this month, jpathomas invited Cat and I to an absolutely amazing private concert by folk musicians Willaim Pint & Felicia Dale. Their rollicking sea shanties, played on guitar, mandola, violin, recorder, and hurdy-gurdy had us in stitches.


(Felicia Dale)

The lighting at the concert was difficult to say the least. It was a pitch black night with little ambient illumination. Tungsten lamps were scattered around the outdoor garden, which meant two shots of subjects just a few feet apart could require drastically different settings. Worst of all, the musicians were in a white tent back-lit by strings of tiny bright lights.

( Still, I did my best. )

You can check out Pint & Dale's website here, and listen to a number of their songs on their MySpace Music page.



Thanks again to jpathomas and his Angel for a wonderful evening. We had a blast.

Good lord, I'm tired! Finishing up a major refactor for Chubbypanda.com. Whatever possessed me to try doing it all in one day I'll never know. I've been at my desk for 15 bloody hours. I'm insane.

Had a great day yesterday. The wife and I took the train up to LA to check out the Nisei Week celebrations in Little Tokyo. The area we had to walk through to get from the station to festivities looks a little dodgy until you realize that you're passing a Homeland Security office, the city jail, the courthouse, and the hospital. Not an area in which your average extra-legal operator is going to choose to linger.

Got some nice pictures. I'll do a blog post about it tomorrow on Chubbypanda.com.

My latest post on Chubbypanda.com isn't food related at all. I've kinda been slacking due to a severe bout of summer-itis along with some serious partying down. But, if you wanna read about my brother's graduation from Stanford last month, click on the picture below.


(Sometimes I wonder about him...)

I'm proud of you little brother. Congratulations on graduating! We all love you very much.

or...

Remembering Better Times

(Pictures for this review taken with my Canon PowerShot SD800is.

This post is dedicated to all of my former coworkers.)

I was laid off today.

Not just me. Everyone. My friends, my coworkers, my comrades in arms. Even the very first amongst us. Five years of blood and toil gone in a heartbeat. The doors have closed. Game over. Elvis has left the building.


(The Lobby Bar at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach.)

There were six of us, at first, working out of a tiny converted warehouse in a bad neighborhood. The detailing shop next door filled the air with a sickly stench that gave us headaches and made if difficult to breathe. We left the loading door in the back rolled all the way up during the day, even when the summer heat turned our little concrete cinder block into an oven. Late at night, crack heads smoked out in the parking lot behind the warehouse. It was always a good idea to get out before dark.


(Whisky and Coke)

It was difficult making ends meet with wages that an In-N-Out worker would have scoffed at. But, we were young, hungry, and we had a dream. We thought we were going to change the world. Sometimes, the wind would come in from the ocean, replacing the paint fume miasma with the clean scent of salt laced with perfume from a nearby florist. On those days we breathed deeply and hoped.


Read the complete article, The Lobby Bar (Hyatt Regency Long Beach) - Long Beach, CA [Eating], on Chubbypanda.com.

For those of you who were fans of the Wheel of Time book series, Robert Jordan passed away yesterday of a terminal illness, which he'd been fighting for over a year. You can read this post about it from his official blog. You may have to click a few time to get it to load, since the site seems to be getting hammered with page views.

There are some out there who might question the title of my post. Detractors complain about a rambling narrative with too many sub-plots and a declining storyline. Those points some have merit. However, in the eleven hefty volumes he produced, Robert Jordan touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of enthralled readers and insured a form of immortality for himself. The passion he had for his books, the passion he instilled in his readers, will live and on spread in the decades to come. Bringing joy to so many people and touching so many lives is, in my opinion, one of the truest forms of greatness.

Thank you, Mr. Jordan, for the last 17 years of wonder. Rest in peace.

(Edit 3:27pm - Comments on Digg seem to be more compassionate than the ones on Slashdot. Fewer assholes, maybe.)

or...

What I Did After My Bachelor Party

(Pictures taken with my Canon Rebel XTi.

Click here to read my entire Bachelor Party Series.)

My bachelor party was on a Friday, and I'm lucky that I didn't have to do anything that Saturday. I don't think I would have been able to handle it. I felt like I had an anvil in my gut and a hammer in my skull. It was quite possible that a Greek warrior goddess was trying to spring, fully formed, from my brow. Thankfully, she gave up after a few hours.



Sunday morning was my sister's graduation from Stanford University. Silver Paladin, whose brother was also graduating, and I managed to find each other in the stands. Pretty impressive, given how large the stadium was. Stanford traditionally has one gigantic commencement with all of its graduates present. Afterwards the students and their families head to separate, smaller ceremonies to receive diplomas from their respective schools within the university.



I'm going to skip describing the ceremony where my sister got her degree and move straight on to embarrassing her. Here's her getting double-smooched by my happy parents...



... and here's her with her boyfriend (on the left) and a friend (both also Stanford students). Now, I like my sister's boyfriend a lot. He's a nice guy, and I think the two of them are good for each other. But, he is dating my little sister. I used to change her diapers and get her her bottle. Therefore, I've just got to do this.



This is a little something he and some friends cooked up to celebrate her birthday set to David Hasselhoff's "Hooked on a Feelin'". You must must must MUST watch it. The panda commands you!

Congratulations on graduating, sis! We love you and we couldn't be prouder!

PS. Now I'm totally cool with your boyfriend. (^_^)



Read the full article: Wacky Walk (Stanford University Commencement) - Stanford, CA [Crazies]

I've begun my Bachelor Party Series on Chubbypanda.com with this post. Check it out!

For those of you who have been jonesing for a little food porn during my absence, here are some pictures from the breakfast buffet at my hotel. I stayed in a hotel the night of the bachelor party because I was pretty sure I didn't want my parents to see the state I'd be in afterwards. Boy was I right.



If you're going to partake of a night of gluttony, you really need to start it off right. I hadn't eaten a breakfast like this in years, but Mr. Big and I felt the need to do a little stomach stretching in preparation for the onslaught to follow. We were pretty sure it would all be digested by nightfall.



Some salve for my guilt...



...followed by a practical selection to ensure that breakfast didn't gum up the works. Don't dwell on that last statement.

I need to get back to posting more personal updates, or this LJ is going to be reduced to a mirror for my food blog. I've back breakingly busy lately with Q2 deadlines and the wedding, but try to post more here.

It'll be a while before I can write a full bachelor party post. Suffice to say, waldensian threw a majorly wicked bash and I have the thrashed morning-after feeling to prove it.

Waldensian: "The sin we'll be committing tonight is gluttony."

A few highlights from our San Francisco restaurant crawl:

* Beers and snacks at the original Gordon Biersch.

* Ramen at Sapporo-ya.

* Multiple course Indian gorge fest in an authentic back room complete with cockroaches and brief visit by a gentleman with a large hand pistol at Shalimar.

* More German hofbrau food and beer than should ever be consumed by man at Tommy's Joynt. Ever.

* Little something sweet to finish at Mel's Diner.

* Staggering back to where we parked the cars at 2am though some of San Francisco's more interesting neighborhoods.

I don't think I'll be eating any more food this weekend. Possibly ever. Oh gods...

A little retail therapy...



World of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Midnight Launch - Irvine, CA [Crazies]

For all you New Shanghai lovers, Bee from Rasa Malaysia just told me that the owner is planning to sell it/close it. That makes three permanent closures (Cathay Newport, Red Onion Cafe, and New Shanghai) and one temporary closure (fire at Thai Nakorn) this month. Shit...

Shout-out to waldensian: If you were planning on eating New Shanghai again any time soon, better get your ass down here and chow down. No telling how long it's going to stay open.

As promised, here's my take on the rockin' New Year's Eve bash ninjafuzz threw laat night.

New Year's 2007 - San Jose, CA [Crazies]

Good job, ninjafuzz!


(Ooooh... Sparkly...)


(The wine hasn't even been poured.)


(Holy Crap! It's a zombie Dick Clark!)

Big thanks also to waldensian, 742, theoni, maetenshi and semajim for making it such a great event. You guys are the best.

How I Got Myself Kicked Off of Chowhound...
...by upholding my sense of honor, my dignity, and my self-respect Chubbypanda-style.

Chowhound Board Nazis (the Conclusion) - [Crazies]

Or...

How I Dropped a Pair and Gave the Man the Bird jpathomas-style.

Tom-tom, you are a bad influence on me, you irascible Republican.

Pharoah, let my people gooo~!

I've spent the whole weekend on monthly housekeeping. Cat went home to celebrate her birthday with her parents, so it's just been me, the cats, and a whole lotta cat fur. I think I'll take a break in a few minutes and go shopping for her birthday present. We're celebrating it next Friday instead.

My father is going to be in town on Tuesday and Wednesday for a few meetings with a local IT company. He wants to take Cat and I out to dinner, which is great. But, gotta make sure the place is ship-shape before his arrival. Also having a little BBQ/potluck get-together with samurai movies next Sunday, which is another reason to tidy up. I haven't sent out the invitation emails yet, so don't spaz. I'll probably do that tomorrow.

Here's a post I made last night that outlines my technique for making chow mein (using the mispelled version of the name 'cause that's what everyone is used to). Hope you guys like it.

Basic Chao Mian (Chow Mein) Technique - [Cooking]

Nothing like being censored to keep you pissed off and up until 2am.

Fuck Chowhound.

An absolutely awesome event with good food and great company. I hope more of you local guys can make it next year.

Click here for the review of this event on my food blog.

I cleaned for nine hours straight yesterday, but managed to get the house back into some semblance of order. There's still some laundry to be done and the upstairs needs to be vacuumed, but Christina is handling that. I do need tidy my room though. My books have been wandering again.

Posted a number of new food reviews recently.

White Spot - Vancouver, BC [Eating]

Red Onion Cafe - Irvine, CA [Eating]

The Cravery - Huntington Beach, CA [Eating]

Lee's Sandwiches - Irvine, CA [Eating]

Hope you guys enjoy.